is conceived of from the idea of adoption mainly on its judicial side (§ 83, a), that it confers a right to the inheritance, i.e. to the possession of the father's property (Gal. iv. 7: ei viós, kai κληρονόμος). Christians are accordingly heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, who, to be sure, has been the first to enter into possession of that inheritance (Rom. viii. 17); and that the apostle is therein thinking chiefly on participation in the divine doğa, is clear from the context (va . . συνdoğao0wμev). As justification is the security for life (§ 96, c), so its result, adoption, is the security for participation in the divine doğa as the second chief part of Christian hope, in which the whole blessedness and glory of the future eternal life is comprehended in one great view. But in so far as it is the Spirit who assures us of our sonship, it is clear from this side how He is the seal and earnest of the future consummation.

(d) If Paul has sharpened the idea of λnpovoμía, which with Peter (§ 50, c) designates only the inheritance appointed for the Christian, to be the designation of the inheritance appointed for the children of God, there is here shown the same advance in instructive exhibition of early Christian ideas which we have seen above in the idea of dóğa. It may even be yet more clearly shown in the transition from the former original signification to the latter, so to speak, dogmatically technical signification. According to § 72, d, the possession of the Messianic kingdom was promised to Abraham and his seed (Rom. iv. 13). Abraham was yet the λnpovóμos in virtue of the inheritance appointed for him by God (Gal. iii. 18); if, now, his posterity are designated as κλnρovóμoi (Rom. iv. 14; comp. ver. 16), the thought is here introduced. that Abraham's seed, in virtue of their filial relation to Abraham, laid a claim on what belongs to the father, and hence the idea of the heir. If, on the other hand, Christ as Abraham's seed is thought of, He who as the exalted kúpios has in the first instance come to be the Ruler and Possessor of the Messianic kingdom, then Christians, in consequence of their living fellowship with Christ, are included in Abraham's seed, and therefore κατ ̓ ἐπαγγελίαν κληρονόμοι (Gal. iii. 28, 29; comp. footnote 5, § 84, b). But these lines of thought in both turns do not lead to the possession of the divine doğa, but only to the perfected kingdom of God (v. 21; 1 Cor. vi. 9,

10, xv. 50; comp. Eph. v. 5), as Christ and the first apostles had proclaimed (§ 34, 50, c; 57, d; comp. § 64, d). Yes, since Christ rules in this kingdom of God, living fellowship with Him in its consummation may, according to the second turn of the thought, be designated as a ruling with Christ (1 Cor. iv. 8; Rom. v. 17) in this kingdom; and since the function of ruler according to Eastern notions includes that of judging, even this may be ascribed to believers (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3; comp. Matt. xix. 28).

§ 98. The Second Coming of Christ and the Judgment.

The realization of Christian hope is connected with the second coming of the Lord in His glory, to which Paul, along with the present generation, even yet hopes to survive; but this second coming of the Lord is preceded by a time of severe trial, and the vanquishing of all ungodly powers (a). The day of the Parousia is at the same time the Messianic day of judgment, when God by Christ will decide who is found approved and who is not (b). But the rule by which this shall be decided can be only the righteousness required by God (c). Even the point of view of an exact retribution in judgment does not contradict the Pauline doctrine of grace, at the same time its specially judicial character is taken from it (d).

(a) In proportion as the apostle was anxious in his principal Epistles for the exhibition of the salvation that has already appeared in Christ, the announcement of the second coming of Christ comes again, as we have found it so richly pictured in the Epistles to the Thessalonians (§ 64, a). Yet here, too, there occurs the idea of a coming of the Lord (1 Cor. iv. 5, xi. 26, xvi. 22; comp. 2 Thess. i. 10; Phil. iv. 5), in which He will be manifested in His glory (1 Cor. i. 7: άπOKáλVĻIS τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ; comp. 2 Thess. i. 7; Col. iii. 4), and with which comes the end in the absolute sense (1 Cor. i. 8; comp. 2 Cor. i. 13, 14), and therewith the moment for the realization of the Christian hope. How near

1 The term povría, which is often used for the arrival or the presence of a man (1 Cor. xvi. 17; 2 Cor. vii. 6, 7, x. 10; comp. Phil. i. 26, ii. 12), is applied to this only in 1 Cor. xv. 23. If, according to Mark xiii. 20, the last days are

the apostle regarded the Lord's coming is very clear from Rom. xiii. 11, when the short time that had passed since their conversion is already so regarded that the salvation to be brought at the Parousia has during the interval come nearer, so that now the day-dawn of the consummation time is immediately at hand (ver. 12). The apostle even speaks, as he does in the Epistles to the Thessalonians (§ 63, d), on the definite supposition that he and the present generation will survive to the Parousia (1 Cor. xv. 22: oi veкpoi èyeponσονται . . . καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀλλαγησόμεθα). There is here no further mention of the eschatological catastrophes which, according to the Epistles to the Thessalonians, he looked for before the coming of the Parousia (§ 63); yet, according to vii. 26, 28, he expects that even yet more severe trials will immediately precede the end. As in this he agrees with the teaching of Jesus and Peter (§ 33, b; 51, b); so he attaches himself to the early apostolic teaching in this, that he makes the coming of the consummation of all things dependent on the conversion of all Israel hoped for after the completion of the mission to the Gentiles (§ 91, d). He expressly says that the compensation for the loss sustained by the temporary casting away of Israel (Rom. xi. 12), namely, the receiving again of the Gentiles as such, will bring about nothing less than the resurrection from the dead (ver. 15), which comes with the consummation of all things. Then every power opposed to God, which up till now has been working in the Gentile world as well as in the unbelieving Jewish world, is stripped of its power, because converted Gentiles and

shortened, in order to save the elect from the ever-increasing risk of falling away, then, according to 1 Cor. vii. 29, the interval to the Parousia is shortened, so that in view of its nearness each one may keep himself free of everything which might impede him in making ready for it (comp. Phil. iv. 5).

2

* If, ver. 51, he appears to assert this of all without exception (read wávris μìv οὐ κοιμηθησόμεθα, πάντες δὲ ἀλλαγησόμεθα), it has to be considered that, according to the contexts, the only thing he was concerned to bring out here was, that none of those living at the Parousia will pass over into the future kingdom of God without being changed (ver. 50). Individuals of those presently alive would meanwhile fall asleep, and thus these would enter into the category of the xp, whom he puts in contrast to the nusis, ver. 52. That he might himself possibly belong to these exceptions (comp. Phil. i. 20, ii. 17), is so little concealed from him, that, 2 Cor. v. 2-9, he explicitly reflects on what he had to comfort him in such a case (§ 96, d).

Jews are rescued from its power, and then comes the end (1 Cor. xv. 24, 25). Paul therefore plainly hopes that the mission, whose work he had advanced in such powerful ways, would progress with equal rapidity, and that its work would be completed even in the current generation.

(b) Here, too, as in the Epistles to the Thessalonians (§ 64, 6), the day of Christ's second coming is the great Messianic day of judgment, presented to view in prophecy (ʼn ýμépa Toû κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ: 1 Cor. i. 8; comp. ver. 7; v. 5: ǹ ημépa Tоû Kuρíov; 2 Cor. i. 14; comp. Phil. i. 6, 10, ii. 16). But as Jew and Gentile have been at the Parousia entirely converted (note a), this judgment has essentially to do with that sifting of believers, which had been presented to view both by Jesus as well as by Peter (§ 33, c; 51, b), by which at the end of the development a decision must be given, as to who has been found approved. For, according to § 88, d, even election does not prevent believers from falling away, or showing themselves as otherwise unapproved during their earthly development. On account of various sins the Christian may fall under the judgment of God (1 Cor. xi. 29, 31, 32, 34; Rom. xiii. 2, xiv. 23), or into ruin (1 Cor. x. 5-11, comp. viii. 11; Rom. xiv. 15); heathenish sins simply exclude from the kingdom of God (Gal. v. 21; 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; comp. Eph. v. 5). On those who love not Jesus, Paul utters an anathema (1 Cor. xvi. 22), as on those, also, who teach false doctrine (Gal. i. 9). Christians show themselves unapproved, if Christ is not in them (2 Cor. xiii. 5); they have sunk into death, if they walk not after the Spirit but after the flesh (Rom.

As in the Epistles to the Thessalonians (§ 61, a), so here also Christ appears as the Judge of the world (2 Cor. v. 10: rò ẞñua rov Xpieroũ), who ought even on that account to be feared (ver. 11; comp. Eph. v. 21), especially throughout those passages where the day of His second coming is regarded as the day of judgment (see above). But often, moreover, as 1 Thess. i. 10, iii. 13, 2 Thess. i. 5, the judgment looked for is the judgment of God (Rom. xiv. 10: rò ßñμa To so; comp. ver. 12, ii. 5, 6, iii. 6; 2 Cor. vii. 1). Rom. ii. 16 offers the express means for reconciling these two ways of viewing the matter, when mention is made of the day in which God will judge through Jesus Christ, and 1 Cor. iv. 4, 5, when Christ at His coming passes judgment, and God thereupon awards the recompense. According to the true Old Testament method, this day here too becomes manifest in fire, as the symbol of the judicial wrath of God (1 Cor. iii. 13; comp. 2 Thess. i. 8), only that this fire is regarded as a testing fire, which destroys all which is unapproved, and sets forth on that account all that as approved abides (vv. 13-15).

VOL. II.

E

viii. 13), or if they sorrow over sins committed in the way of the world without changing their mind (2 Cor. vii. 10). He only who suffers with Christ can be glorified with Him (Rom. viii. 17; comp. Phil. iii. 10, 11); and hence only by the patience and the comfort, which the Scriptures work, can hope be preserved (Rom. xv. 4), and therefore the comfort which is effectual in patience has the final salvation in view (2 Cor. i. 6; comp. Phil. i. 19, 28), and the present tribulation, while it works patience, has the future glory in view (2 Cor. iv. 17; comp. Rom. v. 4). The fulfilment, also, of his special calling is for the individual the condition of his participation in the salvation offered in the gospel (1 Cor. ix. 23; comp. Phil. i. 19). And hence all must appear at God's judgmentseat, in order that each may render an account of himself (Rom. xiv. 10, 12; comp. 1 Cor. viii. 8), whether his life has been that of a believer worthy of complete salvation or not.

(c) It can only cause surprise that at this judgment the primal rule of the divine righteousness (Rom. ii. 6; comp. § 65, c) comes into practice, by which each shall receive what he has done, be it good or evil (2 Cor. v. 10), and that it is not faith, though by it alone, according to § 86, d, can a man on his side work out his salvation. On this account Baur, pp. 178, 181, has actually supposed that the whole doctrine of justification, with its contrast of faith and works, must throughout be referred only to the contrast of Judaism and Christianity, as a general contrast regarded in principle in the abstract, which, when applied to the concrete relations of life, immediately becomes again relative; and, on the other hand, Pfleiderer, p. 264 [E. T. i. 267], in the supposition of a day of judgment, sees a remnant of Jewish doctrine inconsistent with the rest of Paulinism (comp. Immer, p. 355). But the gracious institution of Christianity has by no means the object of either abolishing or weakening the essential demand of righteousness (or of the εὐάρεστον αὐτῷ εἶναι: 2 Cor. v. 9), but to render its fulfilment possible. If a man has not turned to account the means given him for this, and has not reached the end, he yet continues responsible for this; in the last judgment it can only be asked whether the purpose of God, which He wished to attain by the institution